September 03, 2016

If only Hillary treated national secrets the way she treated Goldman Sachs speeches

The FBI engaged in a classic midnight document dump yesterday and what a doozy it is.

The internet almost broke under the strain, and while I generally hate to pile on, I'd like to use this as proof that my analysis offered two weeks ago was eerily accurate.

For those who skipped it, I remarked that Hillary's campaign was a hostage to events. One of them now has come to pass.

As everyone with any cognitive ability can see, Hillary either lied blatantly and stupidly to the FBI about the intentional destruction of documents and willfully disregarding national security, or she is a total blithering idiot. There is no middle ground.

Perhaps the worst thing Trump can do is take her at her word, taunting that she has no great experience and can't even remember being briefed on how to handle classified information. So much for her "competency!"

He might also observe that the only secrets Hillary can be bothered to keep regard her infamous speeches to billionaire banks. Those she's managed to keep under lock and key. Priorities, right?

Speaking of Trump, his flank march to Mexico was brilliant and could not come at a better time. Trump now looks like a sober statesman - presidential, if you will. His continued outreach with minorities is shattering the "RACIST!!1!" label and will give more cover for people to rationalize their support for him.

THE NEVER TRUMPERS AT BAY: I also predicted that the Never Trump crowd's position would be increasingly untenable and this is a great example of it. Either they have to admit they are voting for a self-identified imbecile or electing empress who will do whatever she wants with impunity. Which is it, guys? She obviously thinks she can auction off American foreign policy for personal gain. What's to stop her from having people she finds inconvenient disappear?

One doesn't have to be a conspiracy nut to noticed that people the Clintons don't like have an uncanny tendency to die in suspicious circumstances. Now that we know the FBI is no longer interested in prosecuting abuses of power, we can be certain that the number of accidental suicides will only go up.

ABOUT THAT VAUNTED GROUND GAME: Over the last week I saw a bunch chatter about how Trump was going to get crushed because of his lack of a 'ground game,' i.e. district offices scattered throughout the land. As someone who worked in the nitty gritty of electoral politics longer than I care to remember, I have a simple response: Bullshit.

Outreach offices are welfare for political activists. The main employees are the kids and friends of the connected. Later on they use the time they spent to justify employment in the political world. This is how most political staffers get their start - first as a door-knocker or phone banker, later as a supervisor in a district office. Win or lose, they use their networking to land a paid gig. Most of these people don't know the first thing about government, but hey, they did the work, so now they get a government job.

Outreach is really only effective at the very local level - situations where people have never heard of the candidates. If you are running for school board and city council, ground game is huge. For president it is irrelevant.

The consultant class insists these things are important because that's how they get paid. Trump had a craptastic ground game throughout the primaries and dominated the race. This election won't be decided by turnout ratios in Oakland County. The victor will destroy the loser.

Trump is an electoral innovator. His tactics have shattered the way we've waged political campaigns. In a sense, he's bringing the same innovations to politics that Napoleon brought to warfare - hard-hitting swarms of skirmishers and dense columns of ardent nationalists hammering baggage-laden mercenaries wearing powdered wigs and clinging to half-century-old doctrines.

Trump may yet fail, but it won't because he didn't have enough field offices.